The pan-blue-dominated Procedure Committee yesterday decided to include in Friday's plenary agenda an amendment proposed by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus to the National Pension Law (國民年金法) that would allow farmers to choose whether to join the national pension system.
The amendment, proposed and endorsed by 40 pan-blue legislators, said that the law, which will take effect on Oct. 1, would require all farmers, many of whom participate in farmers' insurance plans, to join the national pension system.
However, farmers who only have to pay a monthly premium of NT$78 in the farmers' insurance system would be obliged to pay NT$674 every month after joining the national pension system, the proposal said.
KMT Legislator Chang Chia-chun (張嘉郡), one of the lawmakers who initiated the proposal, said the Cabinet failed to understand that farmers may not be able to afford the increased premiums.
Farmers would also be unable to enjoy the same amount of funeral subsidy -- about NT$153,000 -- they received from the farmers' insurance system if they chose the national system, the proposal said.
The legislature will decide whether to put the proposal to committee review during Friday's plenary session.
The Procedure Committee also blocked several bills proposed by the Democratic Progressive Party caucus, including a draft bill that would require the KMT to return its stolen assets and the Cabinet's request to abolish the Organic Law of the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Management Office (
Meanwhile, the legislature decided yesterday that it would discuss a proposed amendment to the Value-Added and Non Value-Added Business Tax Act (
The Cabinet passed and sent the proposal to the legislature in December in support of the government's efforts to stabilize commodity prices.
The amendment was written in response to figures showing the country imports nearly 100 percent of its supplies of the four staples, whose prices are closely linked to that of crude oil.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai